Of Friends and Foes
by Qwerky Qity
Summary: Five times in five worlds where Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy almost become friends.


**Title: **Of Friends and Foes

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter.

**Summary: **Five times in five worlds where Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy almost become friends.

* * *

Some people are never meant to be friends, no matter where or when they happen to meet.

* * *

_In which Sirius was never imprisoned…_

"Catch me, catch me if you can!" Harry laughed as he ran around, chased by Padfoot. Finally, the big black dog overwhelmed him and gently pushed Harry to the ground, licking him playfully. "You're getting fat, Paddy." Harry pretended to groan.

The dog morphed into a grinning Sirius Black, who gave an overly dramatic sigh as he flopped down next to Harry. "My own godson, calling me fat—oh the horror!"

Harry laughed again, then pouted. "You promised to show me the secret passage the next time we came to Hogwarts. The one that leads to the kitchens."

Sirius laughed nervously. "Pup, you know you still have three years until you really need to know that."

"Padfoot!"

"Fine, fine." Sirius stretches and gets up. Harry follows his godfather into the ancient castle. Sirius was oddly silent on the way, contrasting with his usual endless chatter on trivial subjects.

Lost in his own thoughts, Sirius did not notice Harry, who stared at each new painting and passageway, falling farther and farther behind, until Sirius was completely out of his sight.

"Padfoot?" Harry called out uncertainly into the gloom of the corridor. "Padfoot?"

"Who's Padfoot?" A voice spoke up behind him.

Harry jumped, and found himself looking at a boy about his own age when he turned around. "Padfoot's my godfather," he said. "He's showing me the secret passageways in Hogwarts. When he was a student here, he and my dad found all of them." Harry could help but puff his chest out proudly at that.

The boy looked impressed. "I'm here with my godfather too. His name is Sev. He teaches Potions," he added. "Sev's really good at Potions, and he's teaching me too. So, if you're here with Padfoot, where is he?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I lost him, and I don't know where to find him."

The blonde boy thought for a moment. "How about I take you to Sev, and he can help you find Padfoot?" he suggested.

Harry couldn't think of a better method, so he agreed. Harry followed the other boy through another passage, and found himself in a room full of strange fumes and jars full of things he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know about.

It seemed he had arrived in a middle of an argument, because Padfoot was standing there with another tall, black-haired man. Both of them had their wands raised, and were glaring at the other.

"Padfoot?" Harry was surprised to see his godfather. "What are you doing here?"

"That's Padfoot?" The blonde boy wrinkled his nose. "How does Padfoot know Sev?"

The two men's stalemate seemed to break with the comments of their godsons. Padfoot sent one last glare at Sev before walking over to Harry. "C'mon, pup," he muttered. "Let's get out of this snakes' pit."

Harry looked one last time at the confused face of the blonde boy who he never got the change to really befriend. Goodbye, he mouthed.

* * *

_In which Harry is not the only one born in July…_

"Shut up, you blonde orphan freak!" Harry's cousin Dudley pushes a small, poorly-dressed blonde boy off the bench, and then laughs with his stupid friend, Piers Polkiss. Harry is visiting for the day, and he has only known Dudley since that morning, but he already sees that his cousin is not very nice. If Dad hadn't promised him a new broom, he would have just told Mum that he wanted to go home.

But he is here, so he might as well try to help Dudley's poor victims. He turns to the boy, who has already gotten up. "Are you alright?"

Harry gets his first direct look at the boy's face, and cannot stifle a gasp. Now that Harry is looking at him properly, he sees that the entire left side of his face is horribly injured. The shiny scarring from a burn stretches from his forehead to his chin. The left eyebrow is completely singed off, and the left eye is reduced to a gray slit. The blonde hair hides the rest of it, but Harry is sure the scar goes on.

The blonde boy looks up, and smiles unsurely. "Thank you. I'm fine." He nervously fidgets with his hair.

"I'm sorry," Harry offers. "Dudley can be a little rough sometimes."

"I know." The boy looks at him, his good eye wide with an emotion Harry cannot identify. For a moment, it seems as if he will say something, but he doesn't speak again. Instead, he seems to think that this is the end of the conversation, because he gives a polite nod and walks away.

Harry doesn't follow. He needs to make sure his cousin doesn't bully any other children.

* * *

_In which James and Lily survived…_

"Harry! Hurry up!"

"Coming!" Harry makes an unsuccessful, last-ditch attempt at flattening his untidy hair before practically toppling down the stairs, right at his mother's feet. She sighs at the messiness of his attire, before whipping out her wand and charming his hair down, his robes smooth, and his glasses straight.

"Thanks, Mum!" Harry gives her a winning smile, which Lily Potter returns tiredly. Her emerald eyes, so like Harry's, are lined with more than Minnie's Magic Mascara.

They Floo to the Ministry, Harry stumbling out of fireplace, clumsy and soot-covered as always. A pair of strong arms pull him up at the other side, following by a laughing, "Prongslet, you're late!"

James Potter is wearing crimson dress robes with the Potter crest embroidered on the front. His own hair still stuck up in every way possible; evidently, he did charmed it down. His hazel eyes are warm as they regard Harry, but Harry only pulls away from his father. This situation is not helped at all when Lily comes through the Floo.

James Potter looks at his ex-wife, and his hazel eyes are frostier than before. "Lily."

"James."

Harry takes this opportunity to slip away. He hates it when his parents meet up at Ministry parties, and it's not as if they won't, with both of them in such important positions, and can only hope that this party will end better than the last one. He hurries to the corner at the end of room, the one always hidden by the long tablecloth of the snacks table. He can be alone there.

But someone's there this time. It's a boy with platinum hair, and a wolf and moon on his grey robes, sitting in the corner with his head in his hands. He looks up. "Hello."

Harry doesn't recognize the boy or his crest, but it is only polite to reply to the greeting. "Hello."

The boy looks at Harry still. His gaze is unnerving. "Why are you here? No one ever comes here."

Harry slides down next to him. "I thought so as well I just wanted to get away from the party."

The boy smiles slightly. "You hate them, too, don't you?"

Before Harry can reply, someone pulls up the tablecloth. "Harry, I thought I'd find you—" James sees the blonde boy and glares angrily at him. "What are you doing here, you little Death Eater filth?"

The boy flinches back. Harry feels a surge of anger on his behalf, but before he can say anything, James reaches in and roughly pulls Harry out.

"You don't talk to that boy again, do you hear me?"

"Let me go!"

"Do you hear me?" James Potter tightens his grip on Harry's arm.

"Fine," Harry snaps. His eyes sting angrily. "I hate you."

James Potter cost Harry his first potential friend, and Harry will never forgive him.

* * *

_In which Draco does not revere Lucius…_

Harry has never been in a candy shop before, but Honeydukes is beyond even what he imagined it would be. Children crowd every aisle, grabbing at the delicious concoctions and begging their parents to buy some. Hagrid left him here and told him to buy some candy. He forgot that Harry didn't have any extra money left.

The store is very full, and the clerks are busy with customers. So they don't see when a platinum-haired boy slips a couple bars of chocolate up his sleeve and sneaks out.

Harry tries to tell one of the clerks, but he is quickly shoved out by a fat boy with an armload of sweets. He decides that it is futile to try to go back in, and opts to follow the blonde thief.

Harry finds the boy behind the owl shop. He is shoving the chocolate into his mouth, and it has already smeared around his lips. He clears his throat loudly.

"You know that stealing is bad, right?"

The boy turns around, alarmed, but relaxes when he just sees it's just another boy. "So? What are you going to do about it?" He looks at Harry defiantly.

"Nothing," Harry is forced to admit.

The boy laughs. "Those clerks won't miss a couple bars of chocolate. 'Sides—" he bites off another chunk—"it's their own fault for not using with anti-theft spells." He takes another bar out from his sleeve. "Want one?"

Harry hesitates for a moment, but takes it anyways. The chocolate is creamy and not at all like the cheap candy Dudley always buys. There is some sort of fruit inside the center, which tastes sharp and tangy. For a moment, the two boys just enjoy their ill-earned chocolate.

The blonde boy looks at him expectantly. "Say, what's your name?"

"I'm—"

"Here you are!" A harsh, sharp voice rings out. Harry is shoved out of the way by a tall, blonde man who ignores him entirely. The man takes one angry look at the guilty-faced boy, chocolate still on his face, and promptly drags him away.

Harry did never get to tell him his name.

* * *

_In which Ron was right…_

The last person Harry expects to find in behind the greenhouses is stuck-up, dirt-hating Draco Malfoy. Of course, he hardly expects to find Malfoy hissing to a snake either.

"_You_'re a Parselmouth?" Harry's jaw drops.

Malfoy jumps a little, and almost drops the snake. "Potter? What are you doing here?"

"I followed you, of course. I thought that you were just lurking around, and I followed you…" Harry puts two and two together abruptly. "So you are the Heir of Slytherin! It's you who's been opening the Chamber and Petrifying the muggle-borns. Ron was right!"

Malfoy seems to have gone dumb, and he keeps opening and closing his mouth, but nothing comes out. Finally, he just says. "I'm not."

Harry brings out his wand. "Now," he says warningly, "you're going to come with me to see Dumbledore—"

"For Merlin's sake, Potter, why can't you believe me when I say I'm not the Heir of Slytherin? You're a Parselmouth too, and you're hardly the Heir, are you?"

Harry considers this point, but doesn't lower his wand. "But you actually want the muggle-borns dead."

Malfoy sputters. The small garden snake he was talking to suddenly turns to Harry. ::_He is not the Heir of the Great Lord, Speaker. And only the Heir can command the Monster.::_

_::What?:: _Harry hisses back at the snake. _::How do you know this? Do you know what the Monster is?::_

_::I've asked him already. He knows but he refuses to tell me:: _Malfoy frowns.

_::Do you know who the Heir is, then?:: _Harry presses.

The snake shakes it head, and quickly slides down Malfoy's arm and into the grass.

"Listen, Potter," Malfoy says, "I'm not the one who's trying to kill the Mud—muggle-borns." He swallows visibly. "I didn't even know I was a Parselmouth until that Dueling Club. When the snake spoke to you and you spoke back. My father's not a Parselmouth, my mother's not a Parselfmouth—I've looked at my family tress; it goes back to Roman times, and Slytherin's not on there. I'm really not the Heir."

Harry thinks for a moment, and it is genuine desperation surrounding Malfoy that finally convinces him. "Fine. I won't tell anyone."

He thinks he sees a trace of a smile on Malfoy's face, which disappears when he says, "But you're still coming with me to see Dumbledore."


End file.
